Build a real AI product portfolio before internship season.
This program helps international students and early-career candidates build a stronger application profile — through a real AI app project, user research, a Lovable prototype, a metrics dashboard, a GTM plan, and an interview-ready portfolio story.
Who this is for
- International students in the US / UK / EU
- Early-career candidates with limited internship experience
- Targeting Product, PMM, Product Ops, Growth
- Or Data, BA, and early-stage tech business roles
What we build together
- 01
Career positioning & target-role map
- 02
User research + JTBD synthesis
- 03
Product hypothesis & MVP scope
- 04
PRD-lite + competitor matrix
- 05
Lovable prototype (demoable AI app)
- 06
Metrics dashboard + event tracking
- 07
GTM launch plan + CRM loop
- 08
Portfolio deck + resume bullets + interview story
15-meeting roadmap
Stable structure, clear cadence. Each meeting has a defined output. All outputs converge into one coherent portfolio project.
- M01
Kickoff & career positioning
Target roles, gaps, what your portfolio needs to prove.
- M02
Pick a problem space
Choose a user group you can actually reach for research.
- M03
User research plan
Interview guide, 8–10 target interviews, recruiting plan.
- M04
Run interviews
Conduct interviews, capture verbatims, surface patterns.
- M05
Synthesis + JTBD
Top 10 insights, Jobs-To-Be-Done, opportunity map.
- M06
Competitor matrix
How existing tools solve (or don't solve) the problem today.
- M07
MVP scope & PRD-lite
P0 / P1 / P2 scope, user flow, explicit non-goals.
- M08
Build sprint 1 — skeleton
Lovable app skeleton, navigation, core screens.
- M09
Build sprint 2 — core flow
Onboarding + the one AI interaction that defines the product.
- M10
Build sprint 3 — dashboard
User-facing dashboard / report, polish the demo loop.
- M11
Metrics & event tracking
Activation, retention, leading indicators, a working dashboard.
- M12
GTM + CRM plan
First users, channels, landing page, follow-up sequence.
- M13
Portfolio deck
Tell the project as one coherent product story.
- M14
Resume + LinkedIn rewrite
Bullets, headlines, About — anchored on this project.
- M15
Mock interview + 3–5 min pitch
Behavioral + product case, English pitch with feedback.
Campus Money Coach — a real AI product, built by an international student.
Why this case exists
Employers don't just want to hear you 'learned Lovable' or 'used AI tools.' They want to see you find a user problem, scope an MVP, make trade-offs, build a prototype, design metrics, and tell the story to a market.
Campus Money Coach is a lightweight money-awareness tool for international students — AI-chat expense logging, monthly summaries, parent-friendly reports. It is not a bank, not an investment platform. Its job is to be a product you can actually talk about.
Approach · 5 phases
- 01
Find a real user problem
8–10 user interviews with international students. Map the money journey, surface JTBD, prioritize the top 10 insights.
- 02
Scope an MVP, not a wishlist
Competitor matrix, value proposition, P0/P1/P2 scope and a PRD-lite.
- 03
Build the app in Lovable
Three build sprints: skeleton, onboarding + AI logging, dashboard + monthly report.
- 04
Prove it with data + GTM
Event tracking, Excel metrics dashboard, GTM + CRM campaign plan.
- 05
Tell the story in English
Portfolio deck, resume bullets, 3–5 minute spoken pitch.
What ships to the portfolio
- 01
Product One-Pager — user, problem, value, MVP, metric.
- 02
User Research Pack — 8–10 interviews + insight summary.
- 03
Competitor Matrix — banking apps, Splitwise, Excel, Notion, ChatGPT.
- 04
PRD-lite — P0/P1/P2 scope, user flow, boundaries.
- 05
Lovable MVP — demoable AI Money Manager web app.
- 06
Metrics Dashboard — activation, retention, launch indicators.
- 07
GTM Launch Plan — first users, channels, landing, CRM loop.
- 08
Portfolio Deck + 3–5 min English pitch.
This project is a learning and portfolio artifact focused on budgeting awareness for student life. It does not provide investment, loan, tax, banking or financial advice, and is not a financial product.
“I designed an AI-powered money management app for international students. I conducted user research, scoped the MVP, built a Lovable prototype, defined product metrics, and created a go-to-market launch plan.”
Your version will be framed around your target roles and the user group you can actually reach.
How we evaluate it
Real users, real interviews, real data — not a hypothetical case.
One project, one user, one MVP — all artifacts feed the same story.
Shipped prototype, working dashboard, written PRD and GTM plan.
Deck, resume bullets and 3–5 min English pitch that hold up in interviews.
Want to build a student portfolio project before internship season?
A single Student Career Call to clarify your direction, target roles, and a project topic you can actually ship.